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If you're wondering which CMS is the right one for your organization, this comprehensive guide will take you through the various options available, detailing the pros and cons of each. Download...Read More

Considering a new phone system for your business? The Phone System Buyer's Guide from VoIP-News provides you with all of the information you need to make a more informed decision. The Guide helps you...Read More

Businesses of all sizes can benefit by automating all aspects of their sales processes with an SFA (Sales Force Automation) solution. But due to the sheer number of features that most SFA solutions...Read More

Choosing the location for your employee performance review

In real estate the catch phrase is location, location, location. This is also true for your employee performance review.

One of the first things you need to consider is the location where you will be holding your review. Performance reviews need to be held somewhere where your conversation will not be overheard by other team members. You also need to have somewhere where other team members can't peer into the room to "watch how it is going".

Effective reviews can't be held over your front counter if customers are likely to walk in, out in the tea room if other team members are around or even outside standing in the parking lot. You need a location where you can sit down together and discuss in a safe, quiet and calm environment the employee's performance.

In many businesses this will mean that the local coffee shop becomes your performance review office - as you may not have enough privacy within your workplace.

If this is your situation, try and pick a time either when the coffee shop just opens or is about 2 hours from closing rather than in the busiest time of the day. You want to be able to hear each other and not be bumped by other people!

In terms of seating, if you are worried at all about how your employee may react (they may burst into tears for example) seat them in a way that their privacy and dignity is retained. This may mean they face away from other people or you sit in a booth rather than a central table.

Meeting over a coffee will also help break the ice between you both as you both have something to do if emotions run high (drink your coffee, organise a water etc).

One last word - if you host the employee performance review off site you get to pick up the tab for the coffee!

Last Saturday I attended BarCamp Africa, an event hosted at the Google Campus in Mountain View. BarCamp Africa brought people, institutions and enterprises interested in Africa - as a topic, an opportunity, or a place of action - together in one...